By Karen Wessels, co-founder of VA Connect & co-founder of SnappSales
Starting any new business can be daunting, as the time and money it takes to start your venture can be a challenge at the best of times. The hardest part though, is to entice and keep clients for the longevity of your business. For entrepreneurs, building and maintaining relationships with your clients is the most important aspect when it comes to offering the best service in your field.
In this post I look at how you can implement simple strategies as part of your business to hook new clients and keep your existing ones happy, without having to break the bank!
Launch new product
First up, launch a new product as part of the service you offer in your business. This entails adapting the older services you offer, for example, if you offer a document pickup service, how about including drop-off at a stipulated area for discount or as part of the package.
Target market
Adapt some of your services for a unique target group. For example, if you were running an outsourcing business, why not target career moms or older people. These target groups are also in need of certain services like assistance in organising their day or arranging for the collection and delivery of important monthly medicine. If you’re offering concierge type assistant services, you can even offer to do the online shopping for moms or liaising with the nanny or babysitter.
Collaborate
Collaborate with other women entrepreneurs. Invite bloggers and online business influencers to a mini conference (or even a webinar) to see what you can offer and have them tweet/blog about it with links to your website and information. Reciprocity is the name of the game.
Loyalty Programs
Stick to the traditional route and don’t forget your current clients. Offer loyalty programs depending on how long they have been with you, how often they make use of your services, etc. It makes a huge difference to clients when they feel looked after.
Vehicle branding
Never underestimate the power of your vehicle; businesses are now using their cars as a marketing tool. How many times have you seen a car in the traffic with branding on and you’ve never seen or heard of the company, you immediately Google it and 8 times out of 10 you think to yourself “ I actually need this” and save the information for later.
Giveaways
Everyone LOVES free things, it doesn’t matter what it is. Branding items such as pens, caps and small notepads are a great way to have a giveaway among your staff and current clients for them to do marketing without them realising it.
Attend business seminars and expos
This is a great opportunity to network and meet new clients, if you can get a stall as an exhibitor or a speaker at the event, this is even better as it will create an interest in your business. Many business executives attend these functions, so you never know where you’re going to meet your next client.
Monitor Competitors
Keep tabs on what your competitors are doing and adapt it to your business. We should always keep abreast of what is happening in the market and if you see your competitor is doing well at a certain marketing campaign for instance, then adapt it to make your offering better. Learn from those who are doing it right.
Social Media
Last but not least, Social Media is the best friend of any woman entrepreneur. It’s simple to run and manage, and has almost no cost. Simple actions such as engaging with people who comment on your blog or Facebook post, having a regular chat session with clients, etc. can go a long way in building your online presence.
These are just some of the ideas I come up with that could help you attract more clients. Perhaps you’ve thought of a few that aren’t mentioned here. Please feel free to comment and share your ideas with us.
Till next time!
Karen Wessels is the co-founder and COO of VA Connect, a South African virtual assistant platform that provides outsourced administrative support; and is also the co-founder of SnappSales, a company that generates quality sales leads for its clients. Prior to establishing both her companies, Karen spent over 10 years in different sales, marketing & admin support roles. This experience has equipped her with the invaluable skills required to run her two successful business ventures. Follow Karen on her Personal Website | Twitter | Facebook | Google+
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